About the people behind La Cave de Mon Lis

I first started cellaring wines in the early 1970's (yes I am an old codger). Like most people at that time, I focused on Bordeaux. It was a great time for wine lovers; classified Bordeaux from the excellent 1970s vintage could be bought for under $10 a bottle. As I read and learned more about wine, I began drinking wines from other areas in France and from Italy, Spain and Portugal as well.

Love for Pinot Noir begins in Burgundy

In the mid 1980s, I had the opportunity to live in Paris for just over a year. It was a great learning experience for me. I took cooking classes at La Varenne (the other famous cooking school in town at that time besides Cordon Bleu). I also attended the wine tastings held almost every Monday night above Steve Spurrir's (the famous British wine merchant not the football coach) wine shop. At many of these tastings, vintners from Burgundy or Bordeaux would show their current releases but would also bring an older wine from their library. It was a great education for my palate and I had the opportunity to taste older more mature wines that would never be available to me in the US.

With the Burgundian wine area about a two-hour drive from Paris (if you drive fast like I do), I visited often on weekends and even helped a small grower harvest his Pinot in September 1985. It was at these tastings and during my many weekends in and around Beaune that my love affair with Pinot Noir began.

Wine education continues with wine shop ownership

After my return to the US, I looked for opportunities to get involved in the wine industry. In 1988, I opened a small boutique wine shop in Short Hills, New Jersey. This also added to my wine education because it was our policy to taste all wines before we purchased them. We did this in the blind and established what we thought was a price that would make that wine a good value. We then purchased only the wines that we could market at that price or less. When New Jersey changed from fair trade (minimum sales price dictated by law) to a state where alcoholic beverages could be sold at any price above cost, large liquor sellers began selling wine at deep discounts. To avoid having to compete with these large discount stores we started to bring in wines produced by young California winemakers who weren't represented by national distribution chains.

This is how I met Ray Coursen, who was then winemaker at Whitehall Lane Winery and also producing Zinfandel under his own label (Elyse). To make a long story short, a corporate transfer to Houston led to the sale of my wine shop. But in the early 1990s, Ray Coursen was looking to turn his label into a full-scale winery and my wife and I became one of the four couples who are partners in Elyse. Our association with Elyse continued our wine education. Elyse continued to grow, adding Cabernet, Syrah and small lots of old vine Petite Syrah to its award-winning list. Watching Ray make wine and seeing the wines progress from grape juice to finished products via barrel tasting raised our wine appreciation considerably and made us think about the possibility of getting more actively involved in the wine business.

Opportunity to produce Pinot Noir arrives

Well, after 30 plus years in the oil industry and traveling the world, I decided to take early retirement this past June. At the same time, my wife was offered a great opportunity in California so we decided to relocate and start a small hand-crafted wine business. Our focus is Pinot Noir, a wine we love but Elyse does not produce.

I still remember the first time I met Burt & Ed (Williams & Selyem) in the small two-car garage that served as their winery at that time. They were so passionate about making Pinot Noir that they had an electric blanket wrapped around one of their barrels, trying to coax it into finishing Malo-lactic fermentation. The ribbons they had won for their first efforts were hung in the bathroom over the toilet - it was only the wine that really mattered to them. It is that passion and desire to make great Pinot Noir that we too bring to this new effort.

We were extremely lucky to be obtain some great fruit from the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard owned by Robert Talbott. Some of the finest California Pinot Noir has been made from this vineyard, with several receiving outstanding ratings from both Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator. We tasted numerous Pinot Noirs to decide on the style of Pinot Noir we wanted to make. We also tasted many of the other Pinot Noirs that were produced from Sleepy Hollow fruit. We discussed the style and techniques that would use to produce our first wine with Ray Coursen, our friend and a truly great winemaker. Discussions were also held with other winemakers who made Pinot Noir from the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard. It still amazes me how frank and open people in this industry are about what has and has not worked for them. I thank them for the information and advice that they provided me. The first vintage was produced at the Elyse facilities under the watchful eyes of Ray Coursen. So now we plan for our next vintage as the wine ages in oak barrels. All indications to date are very good, great color and forward fruit. The wine is currently aging in French oak barrels, where it will remain until bottling in 2004.

So the journey has started; our first vintage is behind us. We look forward to the learnings each new vintage will bring, and hope to make wines that entice more wine drinkers to become Pinot Noir lovers.

About our name, La Cave de Mon Lis

Why did we call our new business La Cave de Mon Lis? The business focus is on Pinot Noir. We are producing our wine using mostly Burgundian techniques so we thought a French name might be appropriate. Since the business will also develop as a small importer of French Brugundian wines the name La Cave also seemed appropriate. Well where did we come up with the Mon Lis you might ask. Well Lis in French means lily and my wife's name is Susan which in Hebrew is also lily. Since Sue is the focus of my life and also a strong backer of us following our dream of making Pinot Noir, I thought having her name as part of the business name was also very appropriate! Hence La Cave de Mon Lis was born.